Land use and land cover and associated maps for Helena, Arkansas; Mississippi; Tennessee
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Open-File Report↗
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Flood-inundation maps for the Leaf River at Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Digital flood-inundation maps for a 1.7-mile reach of the Leaf River were developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the City of Hattiesburg, City of Petal, Forrest County, Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, Mississippi Department of Homeland Security, and the Emergency Management District. The Leaf River study reach extends from just upstream of the U.S. Highway 11 crossing to just downstream of East Hardy/South Main Street and separates the cities of Hattiesburg and Petal, Mississippi. The inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping Science Web site at http://water.usgs.gov/osw/flood_inundation/ , depict estimates of the areal extent of flooding corresponding to selected water-surface elevations (stages) at the USGS streamgage at Leaf River at Hattiesburg, Mississippi (02473000). Current conditions at the USGS streamgage may be obtained through the National Water Information System Web site at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ms/nwis/uv/?site_no=02473000&PARAmeter_cd=00065,00060 . In addition, the information has been provided to the National Weather Service (NWS) for incorporation into their Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (AHPS) flood-warning system ( http://water.weather.gov/ahps/ ). The NWS forecasts flood hydrographs at many places that are often collocated at USGS streamgages. The forecasted peak-stage information, available on the AHPS Web site, may be used in conjunction with the maps developed in this study to show predicted areas of flood inundation. In this study, flood profiles were computed for the stream reach by means of a one-dimensional step-backwater model. The model was calibrated using the most current stage-discharge relations at the Leaf River at Hattiesburg, Mississippi, streamgage and documented high-water marks from recent and historical floods. The hydraulic model was then used to determine 13 water-surface profiles for flood stages at 1.0-foot intervals referenced to the streamgage datum and ranging from bankfull to approximately the highest recorded water-surface elevation at the streamgage. The simulated water-surface profiles were then combined with a geographic information system digital elevation model [derived from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data having a 0.6-foot vertical accuracy and 9.84-foot horizontal resolution] in order to delineate the area flooded at each 1-foot increment of stream stage. The availability of these maps, when combined with real-time stage information from USGS streamgages and forecasted stream stage from the NWS, provides emergency management personnel and residents with critical information during flood-response activities, such as evacuations and road closures, as well as for post-flood recovery efforts.
Mississippi↗
Organic geochemistry of sediments in nearshore areas of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers: I. General organic characterization
This report presents results on the general organic characteristics of sediment cores collected from the coastal zone of the Mississippi River system, including distributions of the important nutrient elements (C, N, P, and S). This was part of a larger study conducted from 2001-2005 to examine the delivery of sediment-associated contaminants to the Gulf of Mexico by the Mississippi River system, funded by the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program. Companion reports emphasize organic contaminants (Rosenbauer and others, 2006), and metals (Swarzenski and others, 2006). The level of contamination within the deltaic system of the Mississippi River system was determined through the collection of sediment cores from interdistributary bays, and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, including the zone of hypoxia. Results provide the basis for reconstructing contaminant inventories from which to develop historic perspectives on nutrient loading and hypoxia, and to better understand how sediment-hosted contaminants either directly or indirectly move through biota and ultimately affect ecosystem health. Concentrations of C, N, P, and S in sediments varied by a factor of 10 between sites, and in down core profiles. Nearshore cores collected in 2001 proved to have erratic downcore C, N, P, and S profiles and sediment deposition rates, suggesting a high energy regime controlled more by variability in river flow rather than by geochemical processes and reactions within the system. These results focused further coring activities further offshore. Atomic C/N ratios suggest that organic matter deposited at all sites is a mix of microbial (algal) and terrestrial (vascular plant) remains, but with algal material dominant. Concentrations of total sulfur in sediments from cores in the zone of hypoxia were often higher than those in nearby zones with oxic water columns. Corresponding atomic C/S ratios were typically lower in sediments from sites in the zone of hypoxia compared to nearby sites with oxic water columns, and thus atomic C/S values may be useful as a proxy for identifying sites impacted by hypoxic conditions in the water column and for examining historical trends in hypoxia. At one site examined in this study, maximum hypoxic conditions were observed in the mid 1960's. The organic elemental composition (C, N, P, and S) of sediments was also used to guide sample selection for contaminant analysis, and to normalize the contaminant data to organic C content of the sediments. Dissolved hydrocarbon gases in sediments showed a dominance of methane, but identifiable concentrations of ethane and hexane, and trace concentrations of propane, butane, and pentane were also detected. All dissolved gases except hexane were dominated by 'bound' gas, gas released only after agitation of the sediment in a blender. Hexane, in contrast was observed mostly as free gas, determined by headspace analysis.
Louisiana↗
Evaluating hydrologic data products for scientific and management applications related to potential future streamflow conditions in the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers
The hydrology of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers is a fundamental driver of ecosystem patterns and processes across a large portion of the United States. Quantitative hydrologic data for the main stems of these rivers underlie numerous scientific investigations, statistical models, and decision-making processes for local, State, and Federal agencies involved in the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program. Although historical hydrologic data exist, data representing potential future conditions of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers lack the resolution necessary to anticipate biotic and abiotic responses to altered hydrology and to determine resilient management actions. A source of future hydrologic scenarios is the readily available LOCA–VIC–mizuRoute hydrologic data products (named for the chain of models the data are produced from—localized constructed analogs, Variable Infiltration Capacity macroscale hydrological model, and the mizuRoute hydrologic routing model—that we shorten further to LVM in this report) that include simulated discharges for historic and future timeframes. The objective of this study is to assess the reliability of the hydrologic data products for their use in Upper Mississippi River Restoration program applications. Key study questions are (1) do the hydrologic data products reproduce characteristics of hydrology necessary to support ecological modeling and restoration decision-making applications within the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program? and (2) are there geographic differences in the reliability of the hydrologic data products? Seven characteristics of river hydrology were selected related to flow magnitude, seasonality, and regime for evaluation. The seven characteristics were calculated using observed and historical simulated hydrologic data at 19 U.S. Geological Survey streamgages throughout the basins of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers; two streamgages are located on the main stem of the Mississippi River and two streamgages are located on the main stem of the Illinois River. Statistical comparisons between observed and historical simulated characteristics indicated that the hydrologic data products did not reliably represent historical hydrologic conditions in the basin or main stem. The hydrologic data products we evaluated could not reliably capture the overall hydrologic regime or flow magnitudes; the latter is evidenced by substantial underestimates of discharge at most streamgages. Seasonal hydrologic characteristics were captured more reliably than flow magnitude, but overall correspondence was low for most streamgages. A weak latitudinal pattern in seasonal characteristics indicated the hydrologic data products poorly represent streamflow timing in snow-affected regions of the basin. Discrepancies in magnitude, seasonality, and regime indicate the potential for multiple sources of error. Because poor correspondence was present across all 19 streamgages, it was not possible to identify specific drivers of poor performance (that is, drainage area or geography). The modeling chain should be evaluated for biases associated with meteorologic forcing data, as well as hydrologic model formulation and calibration. We conclude that the hydrologic data products we evaluated appear unsuitable for applications tied to habitat and ecosystem restoration and management in the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Plans to develop a future hydrology dataset for the Upper Mississippi River Restoration program would benefit from ongoing work to improve global climate model output downscaling methods, to improve hydrologic models, to make use of innovations in machine-learning approaches for projecting hydrology, and other efforts. The framework developed herein to evaluate hydrometeorological outputs generated using global climate models for a specific water resources application is a transferrable approach that could be applied to other data products and river systems.
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Sout↗
Propagation and composition of the flood wave on the upper Mississippi River, 1993
During spring and summer 1993, record flooding inundated much of the upper Mississippi River Basin. The magnitude of the damages-in terms of property, disrupted business, and personal trauma was unmatched by any other flood disaster in United States history. Property damage alone is expected to exceed $10 billion. Damaged highways and submerged roads disrupted overland transportation throughout the flooded region. The Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers were closed to navigation before, during, and after the flooding. Millions of acres of productive farmland remained under water for weeks during the growing season. Rills and gullies in many tilled fields are the result of the severe erosion that occurred throughout the Midwestern United States farmbelt. The hydrologic effects of extended rainfall throughout the upper Midwestern United States were severe and widespread. The banks and channels of many rivers were severely eroded, and sediment was deposited over large areas of the basin's flood plain. Record flows submerged many areas that had not been affected by previous floods. Industrial and agricultural areas were inundated, which caused concern about the transport and fate of industrial chemicals, sewage effluent, and agricultural chemicals in the floodwaters. The extent and duration of the flooding caused numerous levees to fail. One failed levee on the Raccoon River in Des Moines, Iowa, led to flooding of the city's water treatment plant. As a result, the city was without drinking water for 19 days. As the Nation's principal water-science agency, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is in a unique position to provide an immediate assessment of some of the hydrological effects of the 1993 flood. The USGS maintains a hydrologic data network and conducts extensive water-resources investigations nationwide. Long-term data from this network and information on local and regional hydrology provide the basis for identifying and documenting the effects of the flooding . During the flood, the USGS provided continuous streamflow and related information to the National Weather Service (NWS), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and many State and local agencies as part of its role to provide basic information on the Nation's surface- and ground-water resources at thousands of locations across the United States. The NWS has used the data in forecasting floods and issuing flood warnings. The data have been used by the Corps of Engineers to operate water diversions, dams, locks, and levees. The FEMA and many State and local emergency management agencies have used USGS hydrologic data and NWS forecasts as part of the basis of their local flood-response activities. In addition, USGS hydrologists are conducting a series of investigations to document the effects of the flooding and to improve understanding of the related processes. The major initial findings from these studies will be reported in this Circular series as results become available. U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1120, Floods in the Upper Mississippi River Basin, 1993, consists of individually published chapters that will document the effects of the 1993 flooding. The series includes data and findings on the magnitude and frequency of peak discharges; precipitation; water-quality characteristics, including nutrients and man-made contaminants; transport of sediment; assessment of sediment deposited on flood plains; effects of inundation on ground-water quality; flood-discharge volume; effects of reservoir storage on flood peaks; stream-channel scour at selected bridges; extent of floodplain inundation; and documentation of geomorphologic changes.
upper Mississippi River basin↗
Bogue Phalia watershed in Mississippi selected for a national water-quality study
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is studying seven watersheds across the Nation to better understand how natural factors and agricultural management practices (AMPs) affect the transport of water and chemicals. Natural factors include climate and landscape (soil type, topography, geology), and AMPs include practices related to tillage, irrigation, and chemical application. The study approach is similar in each watershed so that we can compare and contrast the results and more accurately predict conditions in other agricultural settings.
Mississippi↗
Water-quality, water-level, and discharge data associated with the Mississippi embayment agricultural chemical-transport study, 2006-2008
In 2006, the Agricultural Chemicals: Sources, Transport and Fate study team (Agricultural Chemicals Team, ACT) of the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment Program began a study in northwestern Mississippi to evaluate the influence of surface-water recharge on the occurrence of agriculturally related nutrients and pesticides in the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer. The ACT study was composed in the Bogue Phalia Basin, an indicator watershed within the National Water-Quality Assessment Program Mississippi Embayment Study Unit and utilized several small, subbasins within the Bogue Phalia to evaluate surface and groundwater interaction and chemical transport in the Basin. Data collected as part of this ACT study include water-quality data from routine and incident-driven water samples evaluated for major ions, nutrients, organic carbon, physical properties, and commonly used pesticides in the area; discharge, gage height and water-level data for surface-water sites, the shallow alluvial aquifer, and hyporheic zone; additionally, agricultural data and detailed management activities were reported by land managers for farms within two subbasins of the Bogue Phalia Basin—Tommie Bayou at Pace, MS, and an unnamed tributary to Clear Creek near Napanee, MS.
Mississippi↗
Changes in streamflow and the flux of nutrients in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin, USA, 1980-2007
Nutrients and freshwater delivered by the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers drive algal production in the northern Gulf of Mexico, which eventually results in the widespread occurrence of hypoxic bottom waters along the Louisiana and Texas coast. Researchers have demonstrated a relation between the extent of the hypoxic zone and the magnitude of streamflow, nutrient fluxes, and nutrient concentrations in the Mississippi River, with springtime streamflows and fluxes being the most predictive. In 1999 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated the flux of nitrogen, phosphorus, and silica at selected sites in the Mississippi Basin and to the Gulf of Mexico for 1980-1996. These flux estimates provided the baseline information used by the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force to develop an Action Plan for reducing hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The primary goal of the Action Plan was to achieve a reduction in the size (areal extent) of the hypoxic zone from an average of approximately 14,000 square kilometers in 1996-2000 to a 5-year moving average of less than 5,000 square kilometers by 2015. Improved statistical models and adjusted maximum likelihood estimation using USGS Load Estimator (LOADEST) software were used to estimate annual and seasonal nutrient fluxes for 1980-2007 at selected sites on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. These data provide a means to evaluate the influence of natural and anthropogenic effects on delivery of water and nutrients to the Gulf of Mexico; to define subbasins that are the most important contributors of nutrients to the gulf; and to investigate the relations among streamflow, nutrient fluxes, and the size and duration of the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone. A comparative analysis between the baseline period of 1980-1996 and 5-year moving averages thereafter indicate that the average annual streamflow and fluxes of total nitrogen, nitrate, orthophosphate, and silica to the Gulf of Mexico have decreased. However, the flux of total phosphorus between the baseline period and subsequent 5-year periods has increased. The average spring (April, May, and June) streamflow and fluxes of silica, total nitrogen, nitrate, and orthophosphate to the Gulf of Mexico also decreased, whereas the spring flux of total phosphorus has increased. Similar changes in streamflow and nutrient flux were observed at many sites Buxtonwithin the basin. The inputs of water, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus from the major subbasins of the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin as a percentage of the to-the-gulf totals have increased from the Ohio River Basin, decreased from the Missouri River Basin, and remained relatively unchanged from the Upper Mississippi, Red, and Arkansas River Basins. Changes in streamflow and nutrient fluxes are related, but short-term variations in sources of streamflow and nutrients complicate the interpretation of factors that affect nutrient delivery to the Gulf of Mexico. Parametric time-series models are used to try and separate natural variability in nutrient flux from changes due to other causes. Results indicate that the decrease in annual nutrient fluxes that has occurred between the 1980-1996 baseline period and more recent years can be largely attributed to natural causes (climate and streamflow) and not management actions or other human controlled activities in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin. The downward trends in total nitrogen, nitrate, ammonium, and orthophosphate that were detected at either the Mississippi River near St. Francisville, La., or the Atchafalaya River at Melville, La., occurred prior to 1995. In spite of the general decrease in nutrient flux, the average size of the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone has increased between 1997 and 2007. The reasons for this are not clear but could be due to the type or nature of nutrient delivery. Whereas the annual flux of total nitrogen to the Gulf of Mexico has decreased, the proporti
Scientific Investigations Report↗
Water levels and selected water-quality conditions in the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer in eastern Arkansas, 2014
In 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Arkansas Geological Survey and the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, determined water-level altitudes in 468 wells in eastern Arkansas and collected water-quality samples from 144 wells. Water-level altitudes were calculated based on the measured depth to water in each well and used to construct a potentiometric-surface map of the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer, and the water-quality samples were analyzed for chloride and bromide concentrations. Upon completion of the potentiometric-surface map, 10 depressions in the potentiometric surface were identified in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain: two large depressions, five small depressions, and three areas of decreased water levels. Analyses of water-quality samples identified several areas of elevated chloride/bromide ratios. A water-level altitude difference map was constructed using 345 groundwater levels measured in 2010 and 2014. Differences in water-level altitude ranged from –10.2 feet in Craighead County to 18.00 feet in Prairie County. Analysis of the overall water-level altitude differences indicated a decline in approximately 84 percent of the wells measured in both 2010 and 2014, including in areas where previous studies indicated water-level altitude increases between 2008 and 2012. Analysis of long-term hydrographs of wells in the study area indicated that mean annual water levels declined in all but two counties. The decline in water levels observed in the hydrographs suggests continued growth of the cones of depression caused by groundwater use in the Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer.
Arkansas↗
Biostratigraphy and paleoecology of lower Paleozoic, upper Cretaceous, and lower Tertiary rocks in U.S. Geological Survey New Madrid test wells, Southeastern Missouri
The paleontology and biostratigraphy of Tertiary, Cretaceous, and Paleozoic rocks in the upper Mississippi embayment are incompletely known because marine fossils are only locally present in these rocks. This study concerns material from two U.S. Geological Survey test wells drilled in New Madrid County, southeastern Missouri, as part of earthquake hazard studies in the northern Mississippi Embayment. Test well1 sampled lower Tertiary strata to a depth of 146ft; these strata were found to be late Eocene in age on the basis of sporomorphs. Test well1-X, 29ft northwest of well1, provided cuttings and cores from lower Tertiary, Upper Cretaceous, and lower Paleozoic rocks to a total depth of 2,316 ft below the Kelly bushing (at an altitude of 288 ft). Lithologic evidence suggests that the base of the Jackson Formation may be at 270 ft, but sporomorphs indicate that the base of the Jacksonian Stage (upper Eocene) is possibly at a depth of about 350ft in test well1-X. Lithologic units of the Claibornian Stage (middle Eocene) here consist of the Cockfield(?) and Cook Mountain(?) Formations and Memphis Sand, in descending order. The Claibornian could not be subdivided using sporomorphs from cuttings, but sporomorphs show that the top of the Sabinian Stage (top of the lower Eocene) is at about 1,055 ft; lithologically, the top of the Wilcox Group (top of the Flour Island Formation) is at 1,048 ft. Sporomorphs suggest that the top of the lower Sabinian (top of the Paleocene) is within the Flour Island Formation at about 1,105 ft. The next major lithologic break, the top of the Fort Pillow Sand at 1,186 ft, does not coincide with any detectable biostratigraphic boundary. Lithologically, the interval from 1,339 to 1,377 ft may belong to the Old Breastworks Formation; dinoflagellates from cuttings indicate that this interval is likely to be late Midwayan in age and, therefore, correlative with the Naheola Formation of the eastern Gulf Coast. The Porters Creek Clay extends from a probable top at 1,377 ft to 1,691 ft, and the base of the underlying Clayton Formation (Tertiary-Cretaceous contact) is at 1, 703 ft. Calcareous nannofossils, dinoflagellates, foraminifers, mollusks, ostracodes, and sporomorphs from continuous cores of the Porters Creek Clay and Clayton Formation indicate that the upper half of the Porters Creek correlates with the upper part of the same formation or perhaps partly with slightly younger rocks in the eastern Gulf Coast, the lowermost Porters Creek appears to correlate with the upper part of the Clayton Formation of the eastern Gulf Coast and with the Kincaid Formation of Texas, and the thin Clayton of the test well probably correlates with only the lower part of the thicker Clayton of the eastern Gulf Coast. Sporomorphs from McNairy Sand (Upper Cretaceous) cores indicate Maestrichtian and perhaps latest Campanian Age. Lower Paleozoic dolostone from 2,023 ft to total depth at 2,316 ft is barren of identifiable fossils except for a probable fragment of the fish Anatolepis; the dolostone is probably Late Cambrian in age. The McNairy Sand of New Madrid well 1-X seems to have been deposited in nonmarine to nearshore marine environments; the Clayton Formation and lower part of the Porters Creek Clay were deposited under marine conditions during an early Paleocene marine transgression. A major regression followed that continued through the end of Porters Creek time and perhaps into Naheola (late Midwayan) time; the Sabinian, Claibornian, and Jacksonian strata in southeastern Missouri were deposited primarily or entirely in nonmarine environments.
Missouri↗
A space‐for‐time substitution reveals the long‐term decline in genotypic diversity of a widespread salt marsh plant, Spartina alterniflora, over a span of 1500 years
Clonal populations face a trade‐off between sexual recruitment and vegetative growth and, once established, may undergo continuous declines in genotypic diversity if their sexual recruits make poor competitors. The geological history of delta formation in the Lower Mississippi River Valley was used to age eight S. alterniflora marshes for use in a space‐for‐time substitution ranging over 1500 years, in order to determine the long‐term effects of clonal growth on genotypic diversity in natural populations. 2 We also predicted that highly heterozygous clones are competitively superior, leading to an increase in the overall level of genetic diversity as a marsh ages and/or to an increasingly positive relationship between clone size and individual heterozygosity, and that the clumping of ramets within clones will occur over increasingly large distances as populations age, while the clumping of genetically related clones will become less pronounced as intraclonal competition begins to obscure the initial effects of localized seedling recruitment. Using molecular markers to differentiate clones, we documented a decline in clonal richness at the rate of approximately 1% 100 years −1 that was accompanied for the first 300–500 years by an increase in the distance over which clumping of ramets within genets occurred. Older populations, in the 500–1500‐year range, showed evidence of clone fragmentation. The spatial clustering of kin was observed for only two marshes, and exhibited no clear relationship with marsh age. Whereas the overall level of genetic diversity was consistent among marshes and showed no clear relationship with marsh age, the relationship between heterozygosity and individual clone size became increasingly pronounced within older marshes. Our results suggest that under natural conditions S. alterniflora marshes will rarely reach ages sufficient for the loss of all clonal diversity, or for the effects of inbreeding and drift to pose a significant threat to population viability.
Journal of Ecology↗
Contributions to economic geology (short papers and preliminary reports), 1931-32, Part II, Mineral fuels. The Jackson gas field, Hinds and Rankin counties, Mississippi
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Bulletin↗
Archive of Boomer and Chirp Seismic Reflection Data Collected During USGS Cruise 01RCE02, Southern Louisiana, April and May 2001
In April and May of 2001, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted a geophysical study of the Mississippi River Delta, Atchafalaya River Delta, and Shell Island Pass in southern Louisiana. This study was part of a larger USGS River Contaminant Evaluation (RCE) Project. This disc serves as an archive of unprocessed digital seismic reflection data, trackline navigation files, shotpoint navigation maps, observers' logbooks, GIS information, and formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata. In addition, a filtered and gained digital GIF-formatted image of each seismic profile is provided. For your convenience, a list of acronyms and abbreviations frequently used in this report has also been provided. This DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) document is readable on any computing platform that has standard DVD driver software installed. Documentation on this DVD was produced using Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) utilized by the World Wide Web (WWW) and allows the user to access the information by using a web browser (i.e. Netscape or Internet Explorer). To access the information contained on this disc, open the file 'index.htm' located at the top level of the disc using your web browser. This report also contains WWW links to USGS collaborators and other agencies. These links are only accessible if access to the internet is available while viewing the DVD. The archived boomer and chirp seismic reflection data are in standard Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) SEG-Y format (Barry et al., 1975) and may be downloaded for processing with public domain software such as Seismic Unix (SU), currently located at http://www.cwp.mines.edu/cwpcodes. Examples of SU processing scripts are provided in the boom.tar and chirp.tar files located in the SU subfolder of the SOFTWARE folder located at the top level of this DVD. In-house (USGS) DOS and Microsoft Windows compatible software for viewing SEG-Y headers - DUMPSEGY.EXE (Zilhman, 1992) - is provided in the USGS subfolder of the SOFTWARE folder. Processed profile images, shotpoint navigation maps, logbooks, and formal metadata may be viewed with your web browser.
Open-File Report↗
Effects of simulated ice on the performance of price type-AA current meter rotors
Slush ice readily adheres to the standard metal rotor of the winter Price type-AA current meter and affects the ability of the meter to measure the flow velocity accurately. Tests conducted at the U.S. Geological Survey Hydraulics Laboratory at Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, attempt to quantify the effects of slush ice on the performance of standard Price type-AA meter metal rotors. Test data obtained for rotors filled with simulated slush are compared with data for solid-cup polymer and standard hollow-cup metal rotors. Partial filling of the cups only marginally affects rotor performance at velocities greater than 15.24 centimeters per second. However, when cups are filled or over-filled with simulated slush, rotor performance is noticeably affected. Errors associated with slush over-filling and filling of cups are also significant when flows are angled vertically.
Conference Paper↗
Mapping potential sensitivity to hydrogeomorphic change in the UMRS riverscape
In 2020 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as part of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program, began a new project to characterize potential hydrogeomorphic change associated with hydrogeomorphic units (HGUs) and their catenae (units linked by their association with sediment sources and flow origins). The goal of the project was to develop a geographic information system (GIS) database of HGUs for the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) available to both scientists and river managers working on UMRR studies and HREP planning and design studies. The characterization was based on a hydrogeomorphic change hierarchical classification developed previously for the UMRS. The products were generated with automated techniques in a GIS using systemic datasets. Landforms were mapped from the 2015 UMRS topobathymetric dataset with geomorphon (shape-based) tools tailored for the large riverscape, valley bottom environments in the UMRS. A clustering analysis was applied to the resulting landforms to identify HGUs associated with zones of perennial low flows, bankfull flows, and overbank floodplains. Catenae were assembled based on the proximity of the units to the main channel, tributary mouths, and side channels from previously published aquatic areas (USACE, 2018) coupled with least-cost flowpath linkages between potential sediment origins and planform change units developed by Rogala, Fitzpatrick, and Henderson (2020). These GIS-based analyses were successful at identifying a range of HGUs using an automated technique with available data across the entire riverscape, with emphasis on those that have the potential for hydrogeomorphic change. Most of the resulting features are depositional, as expected in a large river system. However, this is the first attempt of linking tributary inputs, side channel erosion and levee breaches with their depositional counterparts. The approach was successfully piloted in Pools 8 and 10 in the Upper Impounded Reach and Pool 14 in the Lower Impounded Reach, with next steps for application in reaches of the unimpounded section and Illinois River. This report emphasizes results from Pool 10, which was the focus of most of our attention during the pilot phase.
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Sout↗
Calibration of water-velocity meters
The U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, as part of its responsibility to appraise the quantity of water resources in the United States, maintains facilities for the calibration of water-velocity meters at the Gulf Coast Hydroscience Center's Hydraulic Laboratory Facility, NSTL, Mississippi. These meters are used in hydrologic studies by the Geological Survey, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Energy, state agencies, universities, and others in the public and private sector. This paper describes calibration facilities, types of water-velocity meters calibrated, and calibration standards, methods and results.
Conference Paper↗
Water-quality assessment of part of the upper Mississippi River basin, Minnesota and Wisconsin — Design and implementation of water-quality studies, 1995-98
From 1995 through 1998, water-quality and aquatic-biological samples were collected, processed, and analyzed for the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water-Quality Assessment Program in the Upper Mississippi River Basin in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Sites were selected and samples collected for integrated studies designed to provide a comprehensive description of water-quality conditions, to identify trends, and to determine the factors that affect existing conditions. This report describes the design, site-selection, and implementation of the study. Methods used to collect, process, and analyze samples; characterize sites; and assess habitat are described. A comprehensive list of sample sites is provided. Sample analyses for water-quality studies included chlorophyll a , major inorganic constituents, nutrients, trace elements, tritium, radon, environmental isotopes, organic carbon, pesticides, volatile organic compounds, and other synthetic and naturallyoccurring organic compounds. Aquatic-biological samples included fish, benthic macroinvertebrates, and algal enumeration and identification, as well as synthetic-organic compounds and trace elements in fish tissue.
Minnesota, Wisconsin↗
Bathymetric and velocimetric surveys at highway bridges crossing the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers near St. Louis, Missouri, May 23–27, 2016
Bathymetric and velocimetric data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Transportation, near 13 bridges at 8 highway crossings of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers in the greater St. Louis, Missouri, area from May 23 to 27, 2016. A multibeam echosounder mapping system was used to obtain channel-bed elevations for river reaches ranging from 1,640 to 1,970 feet longitudinally and extending laterally across the active channel from bank to bank during low to moderate flood flow conditions. These bathymetric surveys indicate the channel conditions at the time of the surveys and provide characteristics of scour holes that may be useful in the development of predictive guidelines or equations for scour holes. These data also may be useful to the Missouri Department of Transportation as a low to moderate flood flow comparison to help assess the bridges for stability and integrity issues with respect to bridge scour during floods. Bathymetric data were collected around every pier that was in water, except those at the edge of water, and scour holes were observed at most surveyed piers. The observed scour holes at the surveyed bridges were examined with respect to shape and depth. The frontal slope values determined for scour holes observed in the current (2016) study generally are similar to recommended values in the literature and to values determined for scour holes in previous bathymetric surveys. Several of the structures had piers that were skewed to primary approach flow, as indicated by the scour hole being longer on the side of the pier with impinging flow, and some amount of deposition on the leeward side, as typically has been observed at piers skewed to approach flow; however, at most skewed piers in the current (2016) study, the scour hole was deeper on the leeward side of the pier. At most of these piers, the angled approach flow was the result of a deflection or contraction of flow caused by a spur dike near the pier, which may affect flow differently than for a simple skew. At structure A6500 (site 33), the wide face of the pier footing and seal course would behave as a complex foundation, for which scour is computed differently. Previous bathymetric surveys exist for all the sites examined in this study. A previous survey in October 2010 at most of the sites had similar flow conditions and similar results to the 2016 surveys. A survey during flood conditions in August 2011 at the sites on the Missouri River and in May 2009 at structures A4936 and A1850 (site 35) on the Mississippi River did not always indicate more substantial scour during flood conditions. At structure A6500 (site 33) on the Mississippi River, a previous survey in 2009 was part of a habitat assessment before construction of the bridge and provides unique insight into the effects of the construction of that bridge on the channel in this reach. Substantial scour was observed near the right pier, and the riprap blanket surrounding the left pier seems to limit scour near that pier. Multiple additional surveys have been completed at structures A4936 and A1850 (site 35) on the Mississippi River, and the results of these surveys also are presented.
Missouri↗